Cigarettes and Oversized Houses

Email from 9/26/2016

Hello, everyone!

This week has been awesome! So much has happened, it is ridiculous! I will spare you the boring stuff, though, and get to the meat and potatoes of what happened this week.

So, the first thing that should probably be noted, is that transfers were on Tuesday. I am happy to inform you that the Plainview District remained exactly the same for another 6 weeks! Yay! The only super exciting thing that happened as a result of transfers is that Elder Mullen (MTC friend) is now in my zone! His district was moved into Zone 8, and I am super excited about it! 

Oh! Last week, Elder McCleary and I went on an exchange. We met a woman named Renae. She has a severe smoking problem, but has an interest in the Church. We explained to her that she needs quit smoking for her family and her own health. The spirit was really strong and our meeting ended in us taking an entire pack and a large baggie of cigarettes. We then went to the dumpster in the back of the church parking lot and broke each individual cigarette! It was very exciting hahaha!

Sister Nash and Sister Tarnasky (the sister training leaders for our zone)(they are also in my district) had a baptism on Saturday for their wonderful investigator, Katia. Baptisms are the perfect thing to have investigators come to, so Elder Jensen and I invited all of our investigators to come. Nicole was the only one who make it, but that is still awesome considering she is never able to make it to church due to her job. During the baptismal service, the spirit was incredible! I could feel the spirit coursing through me and I knew that Nicole was feeling it as well. Right after the service, I asked Nicole what her thoughts were about the baptism. All she could say was, "WOW.......I have seen tons of catholic baptisms, but this one was just.....wow.." I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. The spirits mission is to testify of truth, and it was testifying, alright! I feel so blessed to be apart of such a divine work. I love this church, I love our Savior, and I love being a missionary! Right after the baptism, we had Sister Ní Lochlainn help Nicole with some family history. Nicole has never even met her father before. Sister Ní Lochlainn was able (through some research) to find Nicole's father's address and phone number! She also found the same information for her grandfather and great-grandfather! They were then able to put the information into Family Search and literally built her family tree from scratch. It was incredible to see Nicole so happy to find her dad.

So, we had one of the best lessons ever, yesterday! It was with a guy named Michael. He lives behind the Mansuetto's house in the pool house they rent out to him. We brought Brother Mills (from the stake high council) with us. We were also able to use Skype to have Brother Mansuetto (who is still in the hospital) at the lesson as well! The spirit was touching the hearts of everyone in the room. It was an amazing experience to be apart of!

Alright, last thing. I promise! We went to the Westbury Mansion today for our district activity! It was so cool, a big, and beautiful, and fun! Hahaha! I will put pictures and videos of it on my email. Tons of fun! 

I think that's it for this week. I love you all! 

Elder Snell